After Colin Moynihan’s comments on the dominance of privately educated
athletes at Beijing, a war of words has erupted to apportion blame.

Old myths have resurfaced about Labour’s time in Government. Here are the facts.

After 10,000 playing fields were sold off between 1979 and 1997, it was the Labour Government that legislated to ensure that they were protected.

For the first time, sales of any part of a playing field would require support of the Secretary of State. Less than 200 applications to sell off playing fields were granted in the next ten years.

The myth that we outlawed competitive sport is absolute rubbish. Over the course of a decade, we both promoted it and funded it.

A decade of investment, through school sports partnerships, was yielding real results, giving young people in state schools the same sporting opportunities that had long been enjoyed in private schools.

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Between 2002 and 2010, the number of young people doing at least two or more hours of sport per week rose from 25% to 90%. The number of boys and girls taking part in sport outside lessons almost doubled.

There was a real and visible change in the range of sports that are offered in schools. Fifteen years ago, if you weren’t any good at football, netball or cross-country, there often wasn’t much sport on offer for you.

By 2010, the average secondary school offered 25 different sports – including Olympic sports such as judo, cycling and badminton where we have seen so much progress in recent years.

Half-baked accusations about the last decade’s sporting developments are dangerous not just because they are simply untrue, but because they also make it more difficult to have an honest and open debate about how we improve sport both in our schools and in our country.

In the 1996 Atlanta Games, Great Britain came 36th in the medal table – our worst-ever Olympic performance, which followed two decades of underinvestment. Through finishing fourth in the medals table at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Team GB recorded our best ever performance in the modern Olympics.

This has been accompanied by a substantial increase in participation in grass roots sport – which has seen a million more people playing sport at least three times per week since 2005.

Improved elite performance and grassroots participation does not simply happen by accident.

It requires the active support of Government, both in funding the necessary infrastructure and putting the right systems in place to support its development.

That is why a total funding package of £2 billion to support elite, grassroots and school sport in the run up to the London Games – targeted at sports that could demonstrate success – and a schools sport system that was the envy of the world.

But two years ago, at the stroke of a Minister’s pen, we saw the Government cut funding for school sport and dismantle school sports partnerships.

This was a devastating blow to sport in schools and to the ambition to be the first Olympic Games which could point to a public health legacy.

School sport partnerships have been so successful that they have been reproduced in Canada, Brazil and even our arch-rivals Australia.

Their incomprehensible abolition has seen a 60% reduction in the amount of time spent organising sport in schools.

Any debate around improving sport in our schools needs to look at how we can re-create this world-beating system.

The Olympic and Paralympic Games are a once in a lifetime event that will get young people excited about sport. It is important that schools are able to maintain this momentum and help young people develop sport and exercise as a habit that will keep them healthy and fit for the rest of their lives.

In the spirit of cross-party co-operation that has marked the success of the Olympics, let us apply the same determination to creating the legacy we promised – to inspire a generation through sport, here in Great Britain and across the world.